Crash of 1927

Prelude
Not many people could’ve predicted the London stock market to crash, but when it did it affected the whole of the British Empire. Britain had been on the decline for several years every since the Cairo War. The war drained the British government of all their funds and any leftover money, resulting in the country going bankrupt 3 months after the war ended. This, along with the war reparations forced the British government to levy taxes on its population, which many were not able to afford, as with America forcing Britain to pay its loans back due to loans during the Great War exacerbated the British money problems. For years, the British population slowly became poorer and poorer and homelessness increased and businesses began to close. In 1924, the British stopped the high taxes on its population, allowing some to recover but for many the effects were there to stay. Not to mention with the lose of Malta, Suez, and Malacca the British no longer made as much money from trading as they once did, which made income slow. The British were able to allow Egypt, Arabia, Italy and Spain to soften the war reparations which eased tensions, but the economy was still declining. The British Empire was also very unstable. After the brutal repression of protests and anti-colonial riots, many people were fed up with British imperialism. The fact that Britain didn’t control Malta or Suez, so they couldn’t trade freely to their empire also made things hard to control, and Indian and African resistance grew, which costed the British empire more money.

Crash
Due to all of these factors, anyone who owned wealth in the British isles were very keen on keeping it. As the banks were recovering, there was a rumor that the economy was expected to tank sometime soon, and the wealth from the British people would be used to help recover from the crash. Whoever started the rumor wasn’t known, but this resulted in widespread panic across London. The stock plummeted as people throughout the city as people pulled out from the economy, taking back their money and pulling from the stock market. The banks were chaos, packed with panicking people trying to pull their money out. By the end of the day, it was confirmed that the rumor was just a rumor, and there was no evidence behind it. But the damage was already done. The market had crashed, and days after the rest of the British isles felt the impact.

Aftermath
The aftermath of the British economy crashing had tremendous effects in Britain and its empire, and would end up defining the rest of British history. The rumor, spreading so fast and being believed by so many showed how public trust and support for the government tanked. Although the economy was beginning to recover, all the recovery was for nothing. Despite the fact that the government had no control over the crash and what people thought, many prominent anti-republicans used this time to sway public opinion to their side. Afterwards, Oswald Mosley would grow considerable in popularity and over time support for republicans plummeted. Many countries however did not feel the impact as British trade internationally slowly faded but there was still an impact. The USA however also felt the impact hard as the overseas empire, because the USA felt isolated and overtime turned to the British for support and trade, which also had a tremendous impact on the USA and politics thereafter. The British after this crash could no longer pay back its loans, which by this point only payed 10% of. This also did heavy damage to America and its reputation, which was the prelude to the rise of alt-right politics and rise of confederate nationalism. Although the economy would begin to recover, it plummeted once again thanks to the South African War